Mac game's are pathetic

[checkflag]

Anyone else agree? I was just looking at their websight/store and they really have CRAP.

what are your thoughts.

[ReanimationLP]

I think Mac games are a dying breed, with Parallels 3 coming with 3D acceleration, plus then Boot Camp and Leopard and all.

[Jopling]

Half the games have an option for surround sound on mac and then when I select it, it won't apply it. I even got a message in I think Doom that said something like "We'll add this feature at a later date". Why would I want to buy a mac os x game now other than avoiding rebooting? Not to mention most are crappy ports.

[M@lew]

They are pathetic, but I didn't buy a Mac to play games anyway.

[eXan]

Sure, Mac games are out of date, basically no new games are ported to Mac, but some are really nice like UT2004, Starcraft, Knights of the Old Republic (shame not sequel...).

Also, some Mac-only games are pretty fun. Not that great-looking, but with fun gameplay.

I prefer OSX versions of games though, even if I have the same game for Win, because its so much nicer to open games in OS Xm especially if they are made in just a single .app package and I dont have to deal with all that windows cr@p!

[CJM]

I must admit, the lack of games does keep me away from booting into Mac OS as often as I should like. I play WoW in Mac, so that makes me use it. If I want to do anything other than game, then of course I boot into X.

[Cooknn]

Anyone else agree? I was just looking at their websight/store and they really have CRAP.

what are your thoughts.Get an XBox 360 (or PS3, Wii) to play games on. The Mac has many strong points. Games are not one of them.

[huntercr]

Anyone else agree? I was just looking at their websight/store and they really have CRAP.

what are your thoughts.

Are you aware of Aspyr?

http://www.aspyr.com/product/search?title=&x=27&y=11&title_menu=&platform=1&genre=&esrb=

or

http://www.aspyr.com/product/product_listing

( then sort by platform )

Alot of Mac titles from some pretty "current" games. Some are not being sold anymore on their site, but there's always ebay.
It requires an Intel Mac for alot of games though... read the gamerequirements carefully.

[Gasu E.]

Anyone else agree? I was just looking at their websight/store and they really have CRAP.

what are your thoughts.

Yeah, I looked at the "Mac" "website/store". There are usually other ways to buy games other than from "Mac."

My troll-dar is beeping.

[Eric5h5]

It requires an Intel Mac for alot of games though... read the gamerequirements carefully.

Only if by "a lot" you mean "one"...Empire at War is the only Intel Mac game Aspyr has done so far....

And no, mac games (<- no apostrophe) aren't pathetic...there just aren't huge numbers of them.

--Eric

[wyatt23]

all i need is civilization IV, so i'm pretty content with the gaming situation.

[huntercr]

Only if by "a lot" you mean "one"...Empire at War is the only Intel Mac game Aspyr has done so far....

And no, mac games (<- no apostrophe) aren't pathetic...there just aren't huge numbers of them.

--Eric

I apologise. I was trying to point out the issue in general, just to protect the guy if he has a PPC and might buy somethign and be disappointed. I just saw that Star Wars: Empire At War and I thought DOOM3 was too ( but I am mistaken ), and assumed ( mistakenly ) that that was the direction they were going.

[discodave]

Call of Duty 1 & 2 on the Mac are awesome. That is all the gaming I need right now but I am far from a hardcore gamer. If I was, I would have at least one console (XBOX 360), and would build my own high end gaming PC.

I would say gaming on the 'Mac' is a far cry from being pathetic. On the contrary, I think it is quite good. Especially since Boot Camp, which is still technically on the 'Mac'.

David

[gloss]

Anyone else agree? I was just looking at their websight/store and they really have CRAP.

what are your thoughts.

My thoughts are "Where have you been for the past 15 years?"

[c-Row]

all i need is civilization IV, so i'm pretty content with the gaming situation.

Agreed. While we don't get each and every game the industry throws at the gamer's world, there is a good selection of titles that should keep you busy for some time.

[gregorsamsa]

Get an XBox 360 (or PS3, Wii) to play games on. The Mac has many strong points. Games are not one of them.

Sad but so true, & I don't even particularly favour console gaming above computer gaming (ie. Rome: Total War genre, etc.). But, short of buying a PC, I'll continue gaming on my PS2 & probably get a PS3 next year, or Xbox 360.

[Dagless]

To be honest the only commerical PC game I've even slightly been interested in since 2000 is Half Life 2. I couldn't care less about FEAR, all them WW2 shooters and RTS games.

The most important game for me is Cave Story. And that was developed for PPC Mac and XP with a DS port on the way too. I'm much more interested in creative indy games, and both systems have them in an abundant supply.

Short of that, in the console world the DS and Wii keep me verily entertained. :)

[checkflag]

They are pathetic, but I didn't buy a Mac to play games anyway.

Neither did I. But it would be nice to know that I could if I wanted too. For me, A nice racing game would be nice, or even some clancy games.

Basically, games good enough to shut up PC users. LOL.

I am not trolling, sorry if you think that, I just wanted to see others opinions on the matter. I just bougtha MAC PRO and it will be here tomorrow. When I was looking at the apple store, I noticed a lack of up to date games. I also noticed some werent even made anymore and were currently unavailable. I was a little bummed out I guess.

I suppose if i really want to play games I should get an X-Box but part of me knows that if I had that, I would never leave it alone and get any work done.

[ghall]

all i need is civilization IV, so i'm pretty content with the gaming situation.

amen. :D

And the Sims 2. :D

[charmin]

For me, A nice racing game would be nice

Colin McRae Rally?

Hopefully it won't be long before someone announces some more more racers, as a lot of the big name racing titles are sorely missing on the Mac.

Publishers seem to be closing the gap between PC and Mac release now (in general), so let's hope the games that are due on the PC in the near future will hit the Mac shortly afterwards.

[A Pittarelli]

at least we get starcraft 2

[Eric5h5]

I just saw that Star Wars: Empire At War and I thought DOOM3 was too ( but I am mistaken ), and assumed ( mistakenly ) that that was the direction they were going.

Well, no, you're right that it's the direction they're going in. Just so far, there's only been one Intel-only game from Aspyr. There will definitely be more...there are a few others out there from other companies (X3, Heroes V, and the online Myst game). I just didn't want any unaware PPC owners to think that most games were Intel now. :)

--Eric

[Cabbit]

crossover office:mac lets me run halflife 2 native on osx without windows and it runs faster than windows on the same hardware. And you will be seeing a lot of intel only mac games soon due to cider making it almost a one click process and a ui tidy up.

[topgunn]

crossover office:mac lets me run halflife 2 native on osx without windows and it runs faster than windows on the same hardware.
Are you saying this based on personal experience as in you have done it?

[Cabbit]

Are you saying this based on personal experience as in you have done it?

Yes i have used crossover office and before that cedega on linux to play windows games on *nix systems. Crossover office isn't as fast or supported as cedega but the games do run smoother than windows. When i say faster i dont mean high FPS i mean higher average and less massive drops in frame rates like a scene with a stalker windows dropped to 5FPS were the mac stayed at 22FPS and the loading times on the mac are a lot faster than windows.

[bmb012]

Got more good games than the ps3, bwahahaha.

Oh well, Boot Camp saves the day!

Buuut, at least we're getting Starcraft 2 ;)

[t1rider321]

come on civilization and age of empires!

[RaMaz]

Also, some Mac-only games are pretty fun. Not that great-looking, but with fun gameplay.

I prefer OSX versions of games though, even if I have the same game for Win, because its so much nicer to open games in OS Xm especially if they are made in just a single .app package and I dont have to deal with all that windows cr@p!

much agreed, i have Call Of Duty 2 For Mac and win, i installed it on OS X instead of my bootcamp with Vista ultimate, much nicer in OS X (i did the same thing with WoW) :apple:

[cronos72]

I don't think there is a huge lack of video games.
Wen still are definantly behind PC in the quantity department,
but there is hundreds of game out for mac the problem is Macintosh doesn't have shelf space in stores so variety is less because they know PC games will sell better

[harveypooka]

Anyone else agree? I was just looking at their websight/store and they really have CRAP.

what are your thoughts.

They're not crap, there are some great shareware games (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/action_adventure/gooball.html) on there. Unfortunately there is a lack of Mac games news as there aren't many big titles. That's about to change though...

[yoda13]

Well, EA is coming to the Mac platform, or back to the Mac, or whatever....So we should start seeing some better titles....:D

[eXan]

Well, EA is coming to the Mac platform, or back to the Mac, or whatever....So we should start seeing some better titles....:D

I'd rather want Lucas Arts to port their games to Mac KOTOR2 :D

[yadmonkey]

In a sense, the future of Mac gaming is brighter than ever because of Intel chips and Parallels. But the fact that most Macs come with out-of-date video cards will always be a detriment.

But for me, console gaming is where it's at. Get an Xbox 360 - you'll instantly have access to a ton of games, including most of the original Xbox library. Some highlights, for starters:

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1&2
Halo 1&2
Halo 3 soon
Half Life Orange Box soon
Oblivion
Gears of War
Mass Effect soon!!
Bioshock soon
Rainbow 6 Vegas
Fable
Jade Empire
Ninja Gaiden Black
Lots of racers and shooters...

[eXan]

But for me, console gaming is where it's at. Get an Xbox 360 - you'll instantly have access to a ton of games, including most of the original Xbox library. Some highlights, for starters:

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1&2
Halo 1&2
Halo 3 soon
Half Life Orange Box soon
Oblivion
Gears of War
Mass Effect soon!!
Bioshock soon
Rainbow 6 Vegas
Fable
Jade Empire
Ninja Gaiden Black
Lots of racers and shooters...

... and you get a crappy controller that is the most uncomfortable controlling device I've ever used.

[yadmonkey]

... and you get a crappy controller that is the most uncomfortable controlling device I've ever used.

???

Well we're all entitled to our opinions, but I think the Xbox 360 controller is among the most comfortable that I've used. In fact, it's widely praised within both the industry and gaming community.

[gloss]

... and you get a crappy controller that is the most uncomfortable controlling device I've ever used.

Hm. I'm pretty sure the 360 controller is one of the most COMFORTABLE I've ever used.

Odd.

[eXan]

???

Well we're all entitled to our opinions, but I think the Xbox 360 controller is among the most comfortable that I've used. In fact, it's widely praised within both the industry and gaming community.

Hm. I'm pretty sure the 360 controller is one of the most COMFORTABLE I've ever used.

Odd.

I should have included "IMO" in my post...

BTW, how can you play FPS and RTS games on consoles?!

[yadmonkey]

BTW, how can you play FPS and RTS games on consoles?!

I game on computers as well, but I actually quite like a controller for FPS. It requires more finesse than point-and-click.

RTS, not so much. This is, IMO, the biggest weakness of console gaming. But all those great console games which you'll never see on a PC...

[Shadowspirit6]

Anyone else agree? I was just looking at their websight/store and they really have CRAP.

what are your thoughts.

i think we are getting suppport from EA....sometime in july we are getting Battlefield 2142 , Need for Speed:Carbon, a couople of sport games.....they sound like good titles..im looking forward to BF2142

[GFLPraxis]

In a sense, the future of Mac gaming is brighter than ever because of Intel chips and Parallels. But the fact that most Macs come with out-of-date video cards will always be a detriment.

But for me, console gaming is where it's at. Get an Xbox 360 - you'll instantly have access to a ton of games, including most of the original Xbox library. Some highlights, for starters:

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1&2
Halo 1&2
Halo 3 soon
Half Life Orange Box soon
Oblivion
Gears of War
Mass Effect soon!!
Bioshock soon
Rainbow 6 Vegas
Fable
Jade Empire
Ninja Gaiden Black
Lots of racers and shooters...

Actually, as something of a budget gamer (someone who is fine with lower settings and only upgrades once his system can no longer play games wanted), I consider Mac graphics cards very impressive. If you don't, then you haven't looked at Dell, HP, IBM, or Compaq recently.

NONE of their machines come with graphics cards until you get to the really high-end machines. For its price point, an X1600 in a $1299 machine is actually pretty decent. Walk into CompUSA and compare the most expensive machine they have; I guarantee it'll have an integrated card (either Intel GMA 950 or Geforce 6150, shared RAM either way).

Mac graphics cards only look bad if you compare them to a home-built machine or a small PC manufacturer like iBuyPower that custom-builds them for you. Generally, Apple's machines are ALWAYS better than brand-name PCs, graphically. An iMac has a better graphics card than 99% of the machines in any Best Buy, Circuit City, or CompUSA.

Heck, back when the iBook was Apple's budget laptop, I would always point out that you needed to spend at least $1500 for a PC laptop without an integrated card while Apple included a dedicated card for $999.

[Lord Blackadder]

There's a video on Tom's about the future of gaming on the Mac, and an accompanying forum thread (http://forumz.tomshardware.com/community/Future-Mac-Gaming-ftopict20381.html). They are tearing up the platform pretty bad...some good points but a lot of BS too.

I think they are really underestimating the potential of the Mac platform. The Intel hardware potentially gives the Mac platform complete parity in the gaming world.

The real challenge will be convince developers not to write for DirectX, or do a deal with MS to get DX on the Mac. A tall order, but not insurmountable.

Anyway, most hardcore gamers sneer about the Mac, but their platform loyalties aren't as fanatical as they would like you to believe. A year ago they never even talked about Apple. Now they sneer, but they are discussing the possibilities. In a couple years...who knows?

Apple needs to make some hardware choices more to gamers' tastes, but that isn't hard to do since all the stuff is available off-the-shelf from the PC market.

[harveypooka]

There's a video on Tom's about the future of gaming on the Mac, and an accompanying forum thread (http://forumz.tomshardware.com/community/Future-Mac-Gaming-ftopict20381.html). They are tearing up the platform pretty bad...some good points but a lot of BS too.

I think they are really underestimating the potential of the Mac platform. The Intel hardware potentially gives the Mac platform complete parity in the gaming world.

The real challenge will be convince developers not to write for DirectX, or do a deal with MS to get DX on the Mac. A tall order, but not insurmountable.

Anyway, most hardcore gamers sneer about the Mac, but their platform loyalties aren't as fanatical as they would like you to believe. A year ago they never even talked about Apple. Now they sneer, but they are discussing the possibilities. In a couple years...who knows?

Apple needs to make some hardware choices more to gamers' tastes, but that isn't hard to do since all the stuff is available off-the-shelf from the PC market.

100% agree. The sneering is slowly dying out, thank god! We always thought the Mac platform was the best, now it is...

[eXan]

Actually, as something of a budget gamer (someone who is fine with lower settings and only upgrades once his system can no longer play games wanted), I consider Mac graphics cards very impressive. If you don't, then you haven't looked at Dell, HP, IBM, or Compaq recently.

NONE of their machines come with graphics cards until you get to the really high-end machines. For its price point, an X1600 in a $1299 machine is actually pretty decent. Walk into CompUSA and compare the most expensive machine they have; I guarantee it'll have an integrated card (either Intel GMA 950 or Geforce 6150, shared RAM either way).

Mac graphics cards only look bad if you compare them to a home-built machine or a small PC manufacturer like iBuyPower that custom-builds them for you. Generally, Apple's machines are ALWAYS better than brand-name PCs, graphically. An iMac has a better graphics card than 99% of the machines in any Best Buy, Circuit City, or CompUSA.

Heck, back when the iBook was Apple's budget laptop, I would always point out that you needed to spend at least $1500 for a PC laptop without an integrated card while Apple included a dedicated card for $999.

Its probably so in US, but not here.

Most PCs here are sold with graphics cards, if not all (not talking about laptops) and are MUCH cheaper than Macs.

A while ago I switched my friend to Mac. Before the purchase we checked prices/configurations on PCs in multiple stores and we found out that you can easily get faster PC for half the price of the 17"iMac. It had 2 ghz Core 2, gig of RAM, 250 gigs HD and a GeForce 7600 card in it, all costing less than a half of 17" C2D iMac's price.

He ended up buying a Mac though ;)

[GFLPraxis]

Well, part of the reason for that is that overseas, Macs cost considerably more than they do over here, while PC parts are about equivalent in pricing. So you'll be comparing a more powerful PC to the Mac.

But U.S. stores are retarded about it. Seriously, every PC in CompUSA/Best Buy not only lacks a graphics card, but has a power supply so weak that you usually have to upgrade the power supply to put a GPU in it!

[harveypooka]

Anyone else agree? I was just looking at their websight/store and they really have CRAP.

what are your thoughts.

I wouldn't say crap. We have BF2142, ET:QW, EVE, WoW, Penumbra Games and a few other older titles that are decent.

We don't have the range of PC titles and no real development for high profile titles, apart from id's upcoming Rage title. And anyway, that's platform agnostic so it doesn't count!

Another problem is the shift in architecture over the last 10 years. Games like Deus Ex that played in OS 9 (in my eyes is a bloody classic) just can't be played anymore.

Things are improving. Slowly. Very slowly. Very, very slowly.

[liptonlover]

I wouldn't say we have crap either. I'm not the heaviest video game player, but I VERY RARELY have an instance where I really wish I could play something that is PC only. Usually there's a mac rip-off that's good enough, just as good or in a lot of cases better. Or the same developer did cross platform/hired someone else to so it's still available. Also a lot of open-source stuff is great and seems to be multi platform, java, or mac only. I also love the games that come from the mac only companies I know of, even if they aren't huge companies. Oh yeah and also the biggest upcoming titles seem to be for macs too nowadays. Civ IV and spore for instance. I believe both of those were released for the mac on the same day as pc too. Finally, a lot of companies port games on their own for a living and I think they do a decent job. "The Movies" is a good example. I love the game, I'm glad it got ported. Also they took advantage of mac features like easily integrating the user's music and SFX. So yeah... I'm not disappointed. And even if I was, I wouldn't resort to getting a PC. Get an xbox, PS3 or wii if you're really serious about gaming.

[SmartIndianKid]

Eh, I get all my Mac games from http://www.blizzard.com/store/. Haha. For more graphics intensive games, there's always the PS3.

[Baron58]

Mac game's are pathetic

"Mac game is are pathetic"?

Even without the apostrophe, what that phrase would have meant is "the games that exist for the Mac are pathetic", rather than what you apparently intended ("the fact that there is a lack of games for the Mac is pathetic").

Maybe you should spend more time learning English grammar and less time playing games, then.

;)

[erifneerg]

Buuut, at least we're getting Starcraft 2 ;)

sigh, not since 10.5.3 on the macbook pro

[yadmonkey]

Holy resurrected threads...

The state of Mac gaming has never been great, but now that you can easily run Windows natively from your Mac, the problem is largely diminished.

Also interesting is that the iPhone is quickly becoming an exciting platform for game developers. I'd say that the state of Mac gaming hasn't been better in a decade.

[odinsride]

The only computer games worth playing (Blizzard titles) are available for Mac, so I'd say the gaming situation is pretty damn good for Mac owners :)

[realhunter36]

Anyone else agree? I was just looking at their websight/store and they really have CRAP.

what are your thoughts.

well i guess you are not talented to play Mac games.

[erifneerg]

Holy resurrected threads...

Also interesting is that the iPhone is quickly becoming an exciting platform for game developers. I'd say that the state of Mac gaming hasn't been better in a decade.

why do people keep talking as if iphone = mac? I understand it's running some version of OSX but if i can't run it on my iMac, Macbook/etc it isn't for my mac.
What i would love to see is Value/steam coming over on the mac. I know it would take alot of converting from Direct3d to OpenGL but Orange Box was port to the PS3 which uses OpenGL. Source Engine is clearly running in OpenGL, however, that was done by EA. Their was a job posting on Values site talking about porting the games to Linux and talked about porting games to OpenGL. Who knows what happened to that.... it could have been just for the ps3 port but they couldn't find a team that could do so they outsource porting source :mad:

the sad truth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B-ekl_cEWk

[yadmonkey]

why do people keep talking as if iphone = mac? I understand it's running some version of OSX but if i can't run it on my iMac, Macbook/etc it isn't for my mac.
What i would love to see is Value/steam coming over on the mac. I know it would take alot of converting from Direct3d to OpenGL but Orange Box was port to the PS3 which uses OpenGL. Source Engine is clearly running in OpenGL, however, that was done by EA. Their was a job posting on Values site talking about porting the games to Linux and talked about porting games to OpenGL. Who knows what happened to that.... it could have been just for the ps3 port but they couldn't find a team that could do so they outsource porting source :mad:

the sad truth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B-ekl_cEWk

Why do you quote the second half of my post and then act as if I did not just contribute something about the Mac and gaming in the first half? And please note that the part which you did quote began with "Also interesting...", implying that the following statement was something of a tangent. In other words, your use of my post as a launching point for your rant was unseemly.

[Dan.Dare]

Anyone else agree? I was just looking at their websight/store and they really have CRAP.

what are your thoughts.


This is a perennial topic on this forum. Caveat Emptor.

[OZMP]

PC's have a lot of average games with a few good ones, where the games released for OSX seem to be shiners...

FPS:
COD4
BF2142

MMO:
WoW

RPG:
Diablo 2
Diablo 3 is coming
Neverwinter night series
KOTOR

Racing:
Colin macrae
NFS carbon(or is it pro street?)

Strat:
Starcraft 2(is coming)
AOE III
Civ 4
Sims?

That covers most people, and for the more 'hardcore' computer users/gamers, there is bootcamp, But there are more than enough titles IMO for the casual-medium gamer.

[Dagless]

The only computer games worth playing (Blizzard titles) are available for Mac, so I'd say the gaming situation is pretty damn good for Mac owners :)

Take it you've never heard of Valve.

[odinsride]

Take it you've never heard of Valve.

I have indeed. HL2 is okay but I can always play that on 360 if I really want to. (not really much of an FPS fan in the first place)

[erifneerg]

Why do you quote the second half of my post and then act as if I did not just contribute something about the Mac and gaming in the first half? And please note that the part which you did quote began with "Also interesting...", implying that the following statement was something of a tangent. In other words, your use of my post as a launching point for your rant was unseemly.
my rant, as you put it, was what i love to see on the mac (Valve games). i just was tried of everyone saying how blizzard games are enough for them. i think most people here know about boot game. the second half was the only part that interest me.

[gregorsamsa]

Disagree with the OP - which makes my earlier post here (#16) a right crock of bull! :o Then again (excuses, excuses), I only had an iBook back then.

Since getting an iMac in June, despite intentions to Boot Camp the gaming side, I've bought only Mac-native games: AoE 3, War Chiefs, Imperial Glory, Rise of Nations, AoMythology, with more to follow. Frankly, though I'll Boot Camp it for PC classics later on, I really haven't been able to drag myself away from Mac gaming & don't envisage that changing for quite a while. It'll probably be well in to 2009 before I'll even have time to play any PC games, though I'm pretty sure that Empire: Total War will sway me come February. ;)

Sure the Mac games are more expensive, but this can be recouped later as the sell-on value remains very high compared to PC stuff. Meantime, you also get to support Mac game developers, which in my eyes kind of justifies the initial extra expense.

Long live MacSoft et al!

[maccam]

Mac Games WHIPS Windozers...

Age of Empires III
Deep Trouble 2
Galcon
CrystalCaliburn
Descent 2
Ford Racing (really sweet)
MacPipes :p
Redline
EVNova
4x4 evo2
MarbleBlast Gold
X-plane (DUH)
lux
NV1 Mac

Beat those games!
They will keep you busy!

[Huntn]

The selection of Mac native games is decent and can only get better if larger numbers of gamers see fit to buy them.

[sharky05]

macam, you've just listed about $500000 worth of games there though :D Would cost 20 for the lot on windoze...

[maccam]

macam, you've just listed about $500000 worth of games there though :D

Yeah... Ya' Get What Ya' Pay For!!

[Dagless]

Isn't that list mostly comprised of games also available on the PC? And likely cheaper?